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Australia's Labor Party on Sunday has elected Bill Shorten to lead it in opposition, after a month-long vote by the party's 40,000 members.
With Tanya Plibersek, former Health Minister and MP from Labor' s left faction, being elected unopposed as deputy party leader the next day, the country's oldest political party has welcomed a new generation of leaders.
Shorten is the party's third leader in four months and takes over as new conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott prepares for the first sitting of parliament since winning a general election on Sept. 7.
Shorten beat Anthony Albanese after receiving 52 percent of the combined vote of caucus and rank-and-file members, who got a say in the party's leadership for the first time.
Shorten won the caucus ballot, but Albanese received more support from the branches. Despite the disparity, Albanese said the election has left the party "stronger and more united than we' ve ever been before."
But Shorten's victory marks a win for the party's right wing faction in his home state of Victoria, where he had built a strong following as a union leader before he entered parliament.
The result also indicates that the right faction in general is in firm control of the parliamentary party, with strong caucus support of 64 percent voting for Shorten.
But Xinhua understands that some Labor MPs are arguing that given the next election will be a tough task, newly appointed and popular deputy leader Plibersek is best placed to be the next Labor Prime Minister.
Labor was thrown out of office after six years in power after the party dumped the country's first female prime minister, Julia Gillard, and restored a former prime minister, Kevin Rudd, to power just weeks before the election.
However, the new rules lock in the membership vote as part of the leadership election process, making a leadership switch more unlikely -- though this will be tested at the next national conference.
But the party's right wing faction in New South Wales should not be underestimated in biding its time, with Chris Bowen as Shadow Treasurer and outgoing interim leader someone to watch as potential leadership material.
The ascension of Shorten is unlikely to usher in any radical change in Labor policy in the short-term, with the new leader saying he would consult with caucus before making a big policy statement.
The Abbott government's first item of parliamentary business will be the legislation to abolish the carbon tax. By bringing the carbon tax repeal legislation forward immediately, the prime minister faces a hostile Senate, with Greens and Labor likely to oppose the repeal.
Shorten has repeatedly said that he will fight to maintain the carbon pricing scheme, despite calls from Abbott Tuesday that Shorten will be forced to back the Coalition's plan to repeal the carbon tax, saying Labor's new leader is "nothing if not a political pragmatist."
